THE STANDARD
Billionaire Paul Wanderi Ndung’u of betting firm Sportpesa is among owners of the firms associated with the controversial payments worth Sh5.3 billion from Afya House.
Ownership details of the companies that benefited from the free maternity kitty revealed by the State Law office list Mr Wanderi and Richard Ngatia, the owner of a high-end nightclub in Nairobi, as directors of Life Care Medics. Ambrose Makanga Ngari, a former banker, and Esther Wahito Makanga are the equal-share owners of Estama Investments – the firm paid the highest amount worth over Sh1 billion.
The directors of Medafrica Limited have been identified as Njage Makanga and Naomi Wanjiku. Estama Investments has never filed any returns since incorporation in June 2008, which should effectively lock it out of all public procurement as tax compliance is a prerequisite for government tendering.
“The records, both physical and digital of the three companies are available at the Companies Registry,” read a statement from the State Law Office, which contradicts prior findings. Disclosure information of three firms which were sampled to unveil the beneficial owners, could be a major development even as the probe on what could be yet another scandal of the Jubilee administration, gets under way.
“According to the records, no annual returns have been filed since incorporation. It is a private company limited by shares that was incorporated on June 19, 2008,” the registry said of Estama Investments.
How the firm qualified for the award of the controversial tender and an upfront payments of Sh200 million on the same day a purchase order was raised could point to possible insider collusion. Mr Wanderi, who is linked to tens of companies including motor dealer CMC Holdings at the height of its boardroom controversy, said that this was a clean business deal.
“We were contracted as suppliers by the Health Ministry in a tender where our company delivered food supplements, paid taxes on them to the KRA and delivered the goods for storage at Kenya Medical Supplies Authority (Kemsa),” Mr Wanderi said in an interview yesterday.
He added that the supposed delivery was made to Kemsa because the goods required to be refrigerated, equipment which the Health Ministry did not have. His partner, Mr Ngatia promised to send a comprehensive statement on the tender as the chief executive of Life Care Medics.
Medafrica, which we selected at random for search at the companies’ registry, is owned by the same director as Estama – contracted to supply 100 portable medical clinics. Njage Makanga, listed as a co-owner of Medafrica, yesterday said in a statement that he acquired Estama Investments in January 2015 from his uncle Ambrose Makanga and Esther Makanga.